Grow a spine

Gerda Maceikonis focuses on floor stretching exercises during a Feldenkrais body movement class led by Barbara Leverone at the Bayfront Community Center in Sarasota on Wednesday, April 17, 2013. [PHOTOS CREDIT: Elaine Litherland, H-T staff]

By CHRIS ANGERMANN
Correspondent

Maybe our parents were onto something when they criticized us for slouching at the dinner table and insisted that we sit up straight.

“Bad posture can lead to painful joints and arthritis and internal problems,” says Dr. Daniel Knapp, a chiropractor in Sarasota for more than two decades.

Good posture can actually be an indicator of your ability to age independently, without needing others to take care of you, according to a Japanese study published in the Journals of Gerontology in April. Researchers found that among 804 subjects 65 and older, those whose spines most hunched forward were almost three and a half times more likely to wind up needing assistance in a four-and-a-half-year period.

Whether we’re compensating for an injury, creating chronic stress by engaging in repetitive tasks like computer work, or simply maintaining poor habits, we are rarely aware that we’re hurting ourselves by the way we sit or stand.

“We will give in to our muscle weakness because we feel comfortable, so we may shift the body into a position that is not good for it,” says Knapp — “and the body learns to accept it as normal.”

At the same time, many Americans suffer from a general misconception of what constitutes “good posture.” They think of military bearing — legs locked at the knees, shoulders thrust back, stomach sucked in and chest pushed out — as the ideal. But what may look good on the parade ground is not necessarily beneficial.

“Over a long period of time, it requires a lot of effort and will cause as much strain as slouching,” says Robert Uttaro of Sarasota. Since 2005, he has been a practitioner of the Alexander technique, which focuses on the relationships among the head, neck and torso.

Knapp agrees: “We think rigid — but posture isn’t supposed to be rigid. We are dynamic creatures, made to move.”

Barbara Leverone leads a Feldenkrais body movement class at the Bayfront Community Center in Sarasota on Wednesday, April 17, 2013.

Barbara Leverone, a Sarasota instructor of the Feldenkrais method, defines good posture as “the ability to move in any direction without hesitation or preparation, using the least amount of effort.” She adds, “Our goal is to have a person walk better, reach better, turn better, do squats better and get up from the floor better.”

While all three posture practitioners start from different places, they agree on fundamentals — such as becoming aware of what area of the body is being held in tension or unnatural position. Once you address that, you can improve your body’s function.

Uttaro works with clients one-on-one to help them unlearn negative patterns and habits. The methodology he uses was developed by F.M. Alexander (1869-1955), an Australian actor who experienced chronic laryngitis during performances. He became aware that tension in his neck was causing the problem, and explored new ways to speak and move with greater ease. Uttaro, who suffered from severe neck pain himself, was helped by Alexander technique, and found it positively affected other areas of his life.

“I appreciate the grace in movement,” he says. “It leads to a real ease in life, and the way you respond to challenges.”

Moishé Feldenkrais (1904-1984), the founder of the method that bears his name, was aware of Alexander’s work, but discovered other modalities while dealing with knee troubles. An engineer and a black belt in Judo, he developed a system of simple, slow, exploratory movements that return the body to a quiet, neutral place from which to spring into action.

Leverone started working with the method in 1979 as a dancer in Los Angeles. “I had banged up my body doing tap, jazz, ballet and disco. I hurt everywhere and was trying to find relief,” she remembers. “I worked with a Feldenkrais teacher and never looked back.”

For her, Feldenkrais is all about sensory motor learning. Through a variety of movement activities in her classes and individual sessions, students are able to reorganize their brain to develop better habits. Much of her approach is counterintuitive.

“If someone has a pain in the neck, I might see that we need to work with their feet and ankles, and find some relationship to the way they’re standing,” Leverone explains. “The entire skeleton is involved.

“I see that particularly with seniors,” she adds. “Many of them have a hunched posture. They’ve rolled their pelvis back and tightened their hip joints, and their head has come forward.”

Leverone believes that physical therapists often prescribe exercises with little understanding of what is required to relieve a particular pain.

“Their idea of a warm-up is five minutes on the treadmill,” she says, “so we take a senior with flexed-forward body and stiff joints, and he’s tromping on the treadmill. I see it at the gym all the time.”

Instead, she stresses the need “to loosen up and line up” first. She tells her students to “know your alignment before you pick up hand or leg weights.”

Class participants including Marge Tick focus on floor stretching exercises during a Feldenkrais body movement session lead by Barbara Leverone at the Bayfront Community Center in Sarasota on Wednesday, April 17, 2013.

Knapp’s chiropractic therapy also has a movement-based, holistic approach. He cautions that most people are confused about what constitutes body strength.

“A tight muscle can be strong or weak,” he comments. “A tight muscle will also cause the opposite muscle to become weak. Being hunched over a computer will weaken the muscles across your back over time.”

Knapp recommends two simple exercises to improve basic posture: shoulder rolls and wall slides. “It doesn’t take much to fix it; you can change it with two minutes twice a day,” he says.

Rolling your shoulders backward and forward can be done almost anywhere. Wall slides require standing with your back against a wall, feet 12 about inches away, and sliding downward five to six inches while keeping the shoulder blades touching the wall. After holding that position for five seconds, come back up; and repeat 10 times.

All three practitioners agree that good posture is ultimately a matter of paying attention.

“Be aware of how you hold your body in space,” advises Knapp.

“It’s all about mindfulness and being connected to one’s sensations,” says Leverone.

Uttaro suggests: “Increase your awareness of your surroundings. Check in with the breath; we tend to hold it a lot.

“How does it feel? Oh, nice — good!”

Last modified: June 10, 2013
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published without permissions. Links are encouraged.